~ Listen. Gather. Move. Find Serendipity.
Panjim, September 2026: Serendipity Arts is bringing its international artistic journey back to Goa, with works presented in Venice and London set to come together at the 11th edition of Serendipity Arts Festival (SAF) in Panjim from 13–20 December 2026.
The Venice programme, taking place from 13–17 September alongside the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, features performance, music and poetry by leading Indian practitioners including Surjit Nongmeikapam, Ankur Tewari, Ranjit Hoskote and Anwesha Das. The programme extends the National Pavilion of India’s Geographies of Distance: Remembering Home into the public sphere, exploring themes of movement, memory, migration, belonging and cultural continuity.
The artistic exchange will continue in Goa, where works from the Venice programme will be presented as part of SAF 2026. Hakchang – Polang (Body Vessel), One World and Encounters, led by Surjit Nongmeikapam and Ankur Tewari, will travel to Panjim following their Venice presentations.
Also coming to Goa is Eyes Shall Deceive (नैनन की ठगी), commissioned and produced by Serendipity Arts and directed by composer Sneha Khanwalkar and artist Sudarshan Shetty. First presented in London in June, the work combines 16mm film, live music and performance, drawing on the musical folklore of contemporary urban India.
Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal, Founder & Patron, Serendipity Arts, said, “Art needs no translation. At the Venice Biennale, the India Pavilion presents the country’s visual arts, and in addition our performing artists carry that presence out into the city, through movement, through music, through the many languages we speak. September continues that work. That has been the purpose of everything we have built over ten years at home at Serendipity Arts: to create the conditions in which Indian artists can be seen and heard anywhere, and to carry those exchanges with them wherever they go.”
Smriti Rajgarhia, Director, Serendipity Arts, said, “Serendipity Arts had embarked on travelling to many cities in the past year. For us the connection between Venice and Goa is particularly meaningful because the artistic directors for our September leg of programming are Surjit Nongmeikapam and Ankur Tewari along with Ranjit Hoskote. Each is presenting key commissions in Venice. While Ranjit Hoskote has been one of the first curators for Serendipity Arts Festival, Surjit and Ankur are a part of the curatorial panel shaping the 11th edition of the Festival. Bringing these commissions to Panjim, alongside Eyes Shall Deceive from London, allows these different practices and perspectives to meet in Goa and take on new meanings. This exchange is central to how we are envisioning Serendipity Arts in 2026 and beyond.”
Shefali Munjal, Co-Founder & Patron, Serendipity Arts, added, “An audience is not something you arrive with; you build it, one encounter at a time. Ten years in Goa taught us to place work where people already are, a market, a courtyard, a waterway, because the encounters that last are usually the ones nobody planned. In Venice, we are following the same instinct.”
Held annually, Serendipity Arts Festival is South Asia’s largest multidisciplinary arts festival, transforming historic buildings, public spaces and alternative venues across Panjim into platforms for artistic exchange, experimentation and public participation. The 2026 edition will bring together practitioners across visual arts, craft, culinary arts, music, dance, theatre, accessibility and special projects.
Following its 10th anniversary in 2025, the 11th edition will place Goa at the centre of Serendipity Arts’ growing international programme, bringing artistic works and perspectives from Venice and London into dialogue with audiences and the cultural context of Panjim.